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The Declaration of Independence
Commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance by
Red Skelton
Earn This
Just A Simple Marine
Paula's reply to Marine poem
Now I sit me down in
school
The Second Amendment
Are
you Gullible?
Listen to The
Raven read by Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home
Companion.
Have you ever wondered what happened to
the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and
burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had
two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of
the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But
they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty
would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home
and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was
forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without
pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and
poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery,
Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his
headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The
home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was
dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were
laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves,
returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A
few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American
Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were
soft-spoken men of means and education.
They had security, but they valued liberty more.
Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of
this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we
mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor."
They gave you and me a free and independent America.
The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary
War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time
and we fought our own government!
Some of us take these liberties so much for granted,
but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes this year while enjoying your 4th
of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the
price they paid.
Remember: freedom is never free!
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As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's
teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his
class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of
this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own.
To listen to this actual recording with 'Real Audio' click on the Old Radio
I - - Me; an individual; a committee of one.
Pledge - - Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give
without self-pity.
Allegiance - - My love and my devotion.
To the Flag - - Our standard; Old Glory ; a
symbol of Freedom; wherever she waves there is respect, because your loyalty
has given her a dignity that shouts, Freedom is everybody's job.
United - - That means that we have all come together.
States - - Individual communities that have united
into forty-eight great states. Forty-eight individual communities with pride
and dignity and purpose. All divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to
a common purpose, and that is love for country.
And to the Republic - - Republic--a state in which
sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern.
And government is the people; and it's from the people to the leaders, not
from the leaders to the people.
For which it stands
One Nation - - One Nation--meaning, so blessed by
God.
Indivisible - - Incapable of being divided.
With Liberty - - Which is Freedom; the right of power
to live one's own life, without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.
And Justice - - The principle, or qualities, of
dealing fairly with others.
For All - - For All--which means, boys and girls,
it's as much your country as it is mine.
And now, boys and girls, let me hear you recite the Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country, and two
words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: Under God. Wouldn't it
be a pity if someone said that is a prayer, and that would be eliminated from
schools, too?
Red Skelton
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"In a battlefield cemetery each
marble cross marks an individual crucifixion. Someone - someone very young
usually - has died for somebody else's sins. The movie "Saving
Private Ryan" begins and ends in the military cemetery above Omaha Beach.
By sundown of D-Day, 40,000 Americans had landed on that beach, and one in 19
had become a casualty.
Director Steven Spielberg made "Saving Private Ryan" as a tribute to
D-day veterans. He wanted, reviewers say, to strip the glory away from war and
show the '90s generation what it was really like. The reviews have praised the
first 30 minutes of the film and the special effects that graphically show the
blood and horror of the D-Day landing.
Unfortunately, American movie audiences have become jaded connoisseurs of
special effects gore. In the hands of the entertainment industry, violence
has become just another pandering trick. But Spielberg wasn't
pandering. Shocked by and wary of his depiction, I bought a copy of Steven
Ambrose's book "D-Day." The story of the Normandy invasion is a story
of unimaginable slaughter. Worse than I ever knew, and I thought I knew
something about it. The young men who lived through those first waves are
old men now. Many have asked themselves, every day for more
than 50 years, why they survived. It is an unanswerable question. The air
was full of buzzing death. When the ramps opened on many of the landing craft,
all the men aboard were riddled with machine gun bullets before they could step
into the water.
Beyond this cauldron of cordite and carnage, half a world away, lay an America
united in purpose like no citizen under 60 has ever seen. The war touched
everyone. The entire starting lineup of the 1941 Yankees was in military
uniform. Almost every family could hang a service flag in the window, with a
Star embroidered on it for each son in uniform, a Gold Star for those who had
made the ultimate sacrifice. In the early hours of D-Day, with the outcome of
the battle still in the balance, the nation prayed.
Ambrose tells us that the New York Daily News threw out its lead stories and
printed in their place the Lord's Prayer. "I fought that war as a
child," a historian on television said the other night. I knew what he
meant. So did I. We all saved fat and flattened cans and grew victory
gardens.
But we did not all go to Omaha Beach. Or Saipan. Or Anzio. Only an
anointed few did that. The men of World War II are beginning to leave us
now. In my family, six have gone and two are left. We have lost the uncle who
was on Okinawa, the cousin who worked his way up the gauntlet of Italy and the
cousin who brought the German helmet back from North Africa. These men
left us with a simple request. You can hear that request in final minutes of
"Saving Private Ryan." I haven't read a review that has
mentioned it, but it is what makes Spielberg's movie a masterpiece.
In the film, a squad of rangers is sent behind enemy lines to save a young 101st
Airborne Paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed in battle.
Headquarters wants him shipped home to spare his mother the agony of having all
her sons killed in combat. So eight rangers risk their lives for one man.
And when Captain Miller, the Ranger Commander is mortally wounded, he asks Pvt.
Ryan to bend over so he can whisper to him. "Earn this," he says. And
that is the request of all the young men who have died in all the wars - from
Normandy to the Chosin Reservoir to Da Nang to the Gulf. "Earn this."
When the movie ended, the theater was silent except for some muffled sobs. But
the tears that scalded my eyes were not just for the men who had died on the
screen and in truth. Or for the men who had lived and grown old and were
baffled about why they had been spared. I walked out into the world of Howard
Stern, Jerry Springer and "South Park." Into the world of
front-page coverage of Monica Lewinski and the stain on her dress from Oval
Office semen.
"Earn this," was still ringing in my ears. And the tears in my eyes
were tears of betrayal.
This was forwarded to me. The author is unknown.
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JUST A SIMPLE MARINE
He was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion,
Telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in
And the deeds that he had done.
In his exploits with his buddies;
They were heroes, every one.
And tho' sometimes to his neighbors,
His tales became a joke,
All his buddies listened,
For they knew whereof he spoke.
But we'll hear his tales no longer,
For ol' Bill has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer,
For a Marine died today.
He won't be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife.
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.
He held a job and raised a family,
Quietly going on his way;
And the world won't note his passing;
tho' a Marine died today.
When politicians leave this earth,
Their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing,
And proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell of their life stories,
From the time that they were young,
But the passing of a Marine,
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution,
To the welfare of our land,
Some jerk who breaks his promise,
And cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow,
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his country
And offers up his life?
The politician's stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are sometimes disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.
While the ordinary Marine,
Who offers up his all,
Is paid off with a medal
And perhaps a pension, small.
It's so easy to forget them,
For it is so long ago,
That our Bill's and Bob's and Johnny's,
Went to battle, but we know.
It was not the politicians,
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom,
That our country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some cop-out,
With his ever waffling stand?
Or would you want a Marine,
Who has sworn to defend,
His home, his kin, and country,
And will fight until the end?
He was just a common Marine,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us,
We may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict,
Then we find the Marine's part,
Is to clean up all the troubles,
That the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor,
While he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage,
At the ending of his days.
Perhaps a simple headline,
in the paper that might say:
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
FOR A MARINE DIED TODAY."
Author unknown
I guess you could substitute soldier, sailor, airman or dedicated citizen if you
couldn't identify otherwise. Honor to the memory of them all and to those
who carry our hopes for our country.
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Paula's reply to Marine poem
The poem (above) expressed thoughts I've had for many years. I think how overpaid and cosseted our sports figures are compared to those in
the military. Life isn't fair.
Last week I received a letter in the mail from an old
high school friend in Pocatello, Idaho. She had read a Letter to the Editor in the paper and
remembered my mother had something to do with the project--the USO hut during WWII. The ex-service man wanted to thank the city for the hot coffee,
cookies and smiles he received at the Pocatello railroad station and wanted more information. Thought you might like to read my reply to him:
Dear Mr. Wyrouck,
A high school friend thoughtfully sent me your letter to the
editor of the Idaho State Journal. My friend, Marg, remembered that my mother had
been associated with the USO Hut in Pocatello. I would be glad to
tell you something about "The Hut."
There was no formal organization sponsoring this endeavor; it
was the brain child of Edna Service, who was my mother's best friend. I have
never been involved with anything more exciting, interesting and worthwhile. My
father had died, so when mother had duty at the hut, she had no one to leave me with; I tagged along and soon became an integral part of the work.
Edna felt the community wanted to be involved in the war
effort. Since troop trains came through Pocatello on the way to the northwest coast, she
decided to help "the boys." The schedule of troops moving
in and out was classified, however, those involved in troop transportation (train, but
not bus) agreed to give Edna 30 minutes notice before the trains arrived. Remarkably, she organized women to give one day a week to help. Although the
hut closed at about 10 PM, if there were a train coming in during the night, women had less than 30 minutes to dress, get to the train station, prepare
coffee and set out the cookies. To my knowledge, they never missed serving
train!
Gas was scarce, food was rationed. Edna had the
cooperation of organizations in every town within 50 miles to send cookies or cake to the
hut. The goodies came by way of laundry trucks, vegetable trucks, whatever
happened to be coming to Pocatello on the scheduled day. Edna
invented recipes using leftover cookie crumbs to make batches of cookies for the
soldiers, sailors or marines. The outpouring of help and love from Pocatellans and their neighbors was memorable.
Merchants donated coffee and, during Christmas season,
hundreds of razors, books, cigarettes, etc. to be handed out Christmas Eve and
Christmas. My fellow Campfire Girls and I wrapped these hundreds of
gifts and gave them out to the troops. The girls also went door-to-door with wagons
to gather comic books. Our living room floor was covered with comics and,
of course, I had to read them, too!
I'll never forget how grateful the men ,very few women. were
to receive a smile, a cup of hot coffee and a cookie. I was talking with one soldier who
had come back from the battles in Italy. The train was leaving, and he pressed a beautiful cameo into my hand saying, "You remind me of my sister
and thank you for being here." I looked up and he was gone. I
never saw his face, never knew his name, but I treasure the cameo.
The wonderful thing about the USO was not only that it did
something for the service men, but it gave a sense of "being needed" to the
community. That is what is missing in today's world. Being showered with hi-fi, computers,
cars, etc. cannot take the place of the wonderful feeling of doing something for someone else. Thank you, Edna Service, from all of us. Thank
you, Sam Wyrouck, for nudging me to remember and Marg, for forwarding his letter.
Sincerely yours,
Paula
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Now I sit me down in school
(This poem was written by a teenager in
Bagdad, AZ)
Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great
nation under God,
finds mention of Him very odd.
If Scripture now the class recites,
it violates the Bill of Rights
and anytime my head I bow,
becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple,orange, or green,
that's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise,
prayers spoken aloud are a serious vise.
For praying in a public hall,
might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate.
Gods name is prohibited by the state.
We're aloud to cuss and dress like freaks,
and pierce our noses, tongues, and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
and the unwed daddy' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong.
Were taught that such "judgements" do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
study witchcraft, vampires, and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed.
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It's scary here I must confess,
when chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot, my soul please take.
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Senator Larry Craig (Idaho, R) U.S. Senate, June 6, 2000
Mr. President, I appear on the floor to speak about a provision
of the Constitution of our country that has been under nearly
constant attack for 8 years. In fact, we heard on the floor this
morning two Senators speak about provisions in law that would
alter a constitutional right.
The provision I am talking about is part of our Bill of Rights--
the first 10 amendments to our Constitution--which protect our
most basic rights from being stripped away by an overly zealous
government, including rights that all Americans hold dear:
The freedom to worship according to one's conscience;
The freedom to speak or to write whatever we might think;
The freedom to criticize our Government;
And, the freedom to assemble peacefully.
Among the safeguards of these fundamental rights, we find the
Second Amendment. Let me read it clearly:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed.
I want to repeat that.
The second amendment of our Constitution says very clearly that
'A well regulated Militia' is 'necessary' for the 'security of a
free State,' and that 'the right of the people to keep and bear
Arms, shall not be infringed.'
What we heard this morning was an effort to infringe upon that
right.
Some--even of my colleagues--will read what I have just quoted
from our Constitution quite differently. They might read 'A well
regulated Militia,' and stop there and declare that 'the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms' actually means that it is a
right of our Government to keep and bear arms because they
associate the militia with the government. Yet, under this
standard, the Bill of Rights would protect only the right of a
government to speak, or the right of a government to criticize
itself, if you were taking that same argument and transposing it
over the first amendment. In fact, the Bill of Rights protects
the rights of people from being infringed upon by Government--not
the other way around.
Of course, we know that our Founding Fathers in their effort to
ratify the Constitution could not convince the citizens to accept
it until the Bill of Rights was established to assure the
citizenry that we were protecting the citizens from Government
instead of government from the citizens.
Others say that the Second Amendment merely protects hunting and
sport shooting. They see shooting competitions and hunting for
food as the only legitimate uses of guns, and, therefore,
conclude that the Second Amendment is no impediment to
restricting gun use to those purposes.
You can hear it in the way President Clinton assures hunters that
his gun control proposals that will not trample on recreation--
though his proposals certainly walk all over their rights.
In fact, the Second Amendment does not merely protect sport
shooting and hunting, though it certainly does that.
Nor does the second amendment exist to protect the government's
right to bear arms.
The framers of our Constitution wrote the Second Amendment with a
greater purpose.
They made the Second Amendment the law of the land because it has
something very particular to say about the rights of every man
and every woman, and about the relationship of every man and
every woman to his or her Government.
That is: The first right of every human being, the right of
self-defense.
Let me repeat that: The first right of every human being is the
right of self-defense. Without that right, all other rights are
meaningless. The right of self-defense is not something the
government bestows upon its citizens. It is an inalienable right,
older than the Constitution itself. It existed prior to
government and prior to the social contract of our Constitution.
It is the right that government did not create and therefore it
is a right that under our Constitution the government simply
cannot take away. The framers of our Constitution understood this
clearly. Therefore, they did not merely acknowledge that the
right exists. They denied Congress the power to infringe upon
that right.
Under the social contract that is the Constitution of the United
States, the American people have told Congress explicitly that we
do not have the authority to abolish the American people's right
to defend themselves. Further, the framers said not only does the
Congress not have the power to abolish that right, but Congress
may not even infringe upon that right. That is what our
Constitution says. That is what the Second Amendment clearly lays
out. Our Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment to tell us
that a free state cannot exist if the people are denied the right
or the means to defend themselves.
Let me repeat that because it is so fundamental to our freedom. A
free state cannot exist, our free state of the United States
collectively, cannot exist without the right of the people to
defend themselves. This is the meaning of the Second Amendment.
Over the years a lot of our citizens and many politicians have
tried to nudge that definition around. But contrary to what the
media and the President say, the right to keep and bear arms is
as important today as it was 200 years ago.
Every day in this country thousands of peaceful, law-abiding
Americans use guns to defend themselves, their families, and
their property. Oftentimes, complete strangers are protected by
that citizen who steps up and stops the thief or the stalker or
the rapist or the murderer from going at that citizen.
According to the FBI, criminals used guns in 1998 380,000 times
across America. Yet research indicates that peaceful, law-
abiding Americans, using their constitutional right, used a gun
to prevent 2.5 million crimes in America that year and nearly
every year. In fact, I believe the benefits of protecting the
people's right to keep and bear arms far outweighs the
destruction wrought by criminals and firearms accidents. The
Centers for Disease Control report 32,000 Americans died from
firearm injuries in 1997; under any estimate, that is a tragedy.
Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control do not keep data
on the number of lives that were saved when guns were used in a
defensive manner.
Yet if we were to survey the public every year, we would find
400,000 Americans report they used a gun in a way that almost
certainly saved either their life or someone else's. Is that
estimate too high? Perhaps. I hope it is, because every time a
life is saved from violence, that means that someone was
threatening a life with violence. But that number would have to
be over 13 times too high for our opponents to be correct when
they say that guns are used to kill more often than they are used
to protect. What they have been saying here and across America
simply isn't true and the facts bear that out.
We are not debating the tragedy. We are debating facts at this
moment. They cannot come up with 2.5 million gun crimes. But
clearly, through surveys, we can come up with 2.5 million crimes
thwarted every year when someone used a gun in defense of
themselves or their property. In many cases, armed citizens not
only thwarted crime, but they held the suspect until the
authorities arrived and placed that person in custody.
Stories of people defending themselves with guns do not make the
nightly news. It just simply isn't news in America. It isn't hot.
It isn't exciting. It is American. Sometimes when people act in
an American way, it simply isn't reportable in our country
anymore. So the national news media doesn't follow it.
Yet two of the school shootings that have brought gun issues to
the forefront in the last year, in Pearl, MS, and Edinboro, PA,
were stopped by peaceful gun owners using their weapons to subdue
the killer until the police arrived. How did that get missed in
the story? It was mentioned once, in passing, and then ignored as
people ran to the floor of the Senate to talk about the tragedy
of the killing. Of course the killing was a tragedy, but it was
also heroic that someone used their constitutional right to save
lives in the process.
A third school shooting in Springfield, OR, was stopped because
some parents took time to teach their child the wise use of guns.
So when that young man heard a particular sound coming from the
gun, he was able to rush the shooter, because he knew that gun
had run out of ammunition. He was used to guns. He was around
them. He subdued the shooter and saved potentially many other
lives. We have recognized him nationally for that heroic act,
that young high school student of Springfield, OR.
For some reason, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
never want to tell these stories. They only want to say, after a
crisis such as this, 'Pass a new gun control law and call 9-1-1.'
Yet these stories are essential to our understanding of the right
of people to keep and bear arms.
I will share a few of these stories right now. Shawnra Pence, a
29-year-old mother from Sequim, WA, home alone with one of her
children, heard an intruder break into the house. She took her .9
mm, took her child to the bedroom, and when the 18-year-old
criminal broke into the bedroom, she said, 'Get out of my house,
I have a gun, get out now.' He left and the police caught him.
She saved her life and her child's life. It made one brief story
in the Peninsula Daily news in Sequim, WA.
We have to talk about these stories because it is time America
heard the other side of this debate. There are 2.5 million
Americans out there defending themselves and their property by
the use of their constitutional right.
In Cumberland, TN, a 28-year-old Jason McCulley broke into the
home of Stanley Horn and his wife, tied up the couple at knife-
point, and demanded to know where the couple kept some cash.
While Mrs. Horn was directing the robber, Mr. Horn wriggled free
from his restraints, retrieved his handgun, shot the intruder,
and then called the police. The intruder, Jason McCulley,
subsequently died. If some Senators on the other side of the
aisle had their way, perhaps the Horns would have been killed and
Jason McCulley would have walked away.
Earlier today, we heard the Senator from Illinois and the Senator
from California read the names people killed by guns in America.
Some day they may read the name Jason McCulley. I doubt they will
tell you how he died, however, because it doesn't advance their
goal of destroying the Second Amendment. But As Paul Harvey might
say: Now you know the rest of the story.
Every 13 seconds this story is repeated across America. Every 13
seconds in America someone uses a gun to stop a crime. Why do our
opponents never tell these stories? Why do the enemies of the
right to keep and bear arms ignore this reality that is relived
by 2.5 million Americans every year? Why is it that all we hear
from them is, 'Pass a new gun control law, and, by the way, call
9-1-1.'
I encourage all listening today, if you have heard of someone
using their Second Amendment rights to prevent a crime, to save a
life, to protect another life, then send us your story. There are
people here who desperately need to hear this in Washington,
right here on Capitol Hill. This is a story that should be played
out every day in the press but isn't.
So let's play it out, right here on the floor of the Senate. Send
me those stories from your local newspapers about that law-
abiding citizen who used his constitutional right of self-
defense. Send that story to me, Senator Larry Craig, Washington,
DC, 20510, or send it to your own Senator. Let him or her know
the rest of the story of America's constitutional rights.
Having said all of this, let there be no mistake. Guns are not
for everyone. We restrict children's access to guns and we
restrict criminals' access to guns, but we must not tolerate
politicians who tell us that the Second Amendment only protects
the right to hunt. We must not tolerate politicians who infringe
upon our right to defend ourselves from thieves and stalkers and
rapists and murderers. And we must not tolerate the politician
who simply says: 'Pass another gun control law and call 9-1-1.'
I yield the floor.
Published in the Jun. 12, 2000 issue of The
Washington Weekly
Copyright 2000 The Washington Weekly.
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